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Android loses 8% of its global OS market share in five years

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Re: Android loses 8% of its global OS market share in five years

#291

Post by SergeAx »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #75

It's been mentioned before in other articles, but I don't think it can be understated how much iMessage makes it difficult to be the "odd man out" if you're on an Android phone. And it's not just about teenagers, and it's not about "green bubbles". I recently went on a vacation with friends, 4 other folks on iPhones and me on an Android. Our group chat experience almost made me consider getting an iPhone. The inabili…

This is totally US problem. Any other country - no one even consider using proprietary OS chat app. Everyone uses either WhatsApp (Europe) or Telegram (exUSSR, Middle East).

Re: Android loses 8% of its global OS market share in five years

#292

Post by recuter »

vidanay wrote: post #211
tomtheelder wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I switched recently, and honestly have found the experience on iPhone to broadly be worse. There are a few things that are a bit nicer, but the downgrade in the notifications system alone just tanks the experience. That said I switched for mostly privacy reasons, so won't be going back.

I have a company issued iPhone, and the atrocious notification system is enough to assure I will not buy an iPhone personally. If notifications in iOS were ever completely overhauled to the Android model, I would probably jump ship.

You should watch the WWDC keynote in 6 weeks :)

Re: Android loses 8% of its global OS market share in five years

#293

Post by SergeAx »

hackernewds wrote: post #158
notatoad wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As much as I hate promoting Facebook products, "let's make a WhatsApp group" seems to be the socially-acceptable solution to this. Everybody has it installed and always seems to be happy to switch communication over to it if somebody in the group suggests it.

This is really where Facebook can excel against Apple. Although I do prefer my messages to be more like emails and texts - not platform-bound. Currently I have to have Whatsapp, Messenger, Viber, Telegram, Signal to talk to diff groups of people. Why isn't there a unified protocol and system?

Because every company wants its own walled garden. They think it's increasing their market cap.

Re: Android loses 8% of its global OS market share in five years

#295

Post by SergeAx »

qsdf38100 wrote: post #181
notatoad wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As much as I hate promoting Facebook products, "let's make a WhatsApp group" seems to be the socially-acceptable solution to this. Everybody has it installed and always seems to be happy to switch communication over to it if somebody in the group suggests it.

No way I let Facebook get access to my phone contacts. I guess this is worth billions for them, because it’s a huge social graph they were missing. Interestingly the option to use the app without giving away all your contacts has been removed years ago. It tells a lot. Note that Signal still works without your contacts.

So, you would never give up your contact list to one mega corp, but readily give it away to another. How do you made that decision? Asking not rhetorically and without sarcasm.

Re: Android loses 8% of its global OS market share in five years

#296

Post by MBCook »

grumpyprole wrote: post #19
lumb63 wrote: post #7

I’m not surprised. I used Android devoutly, had a Galaxy S4, then an S8 when that started showing its age. I upgraded to an iPhone 12 when AT&T ran the promotion to get a free one. I wanted to keep liking Android. The amount of time I spent arguing vehemently that Android was superior made the switch hard, but several factors came into play for me: - Extremely slow and fragmented upgrade of OS. This resulted in subst…

But the iPhone only "just works" if you completely buy in to Apple's ecosystem. E.g. if you want to buy some FLAC music files from somewhere else, it won't "just work" anymore. Android is still the lesser of two evils in terms of allowing more choice on its platform.

> E.g. if you want to buy some FLAC music files from somewhere else, it won't "just work" anymore.

The thing is nobody* does that.

There are a few. That’s why I added the asterisk. But realistically very few people actually do it. Especially compared to the number of iPhones they sell every year.

If you were using MP3 files, you wouldn’t have an issue. Or AAC. There might even be others. Apple really likes to make things easy, but they tend to only do it for the common case. That’s what gets the most use, that’s what makes the most people happy, that’s what they focus on.

If you’re the kind of person who wants to do things that are far out of the mainstream you’re never going to be happy with an iPhone. You can use other apps as other people pointed out. But I wouldn’t expect this to ever work in Apple’s music player. It’s the same reason you can’t have root, re-theme your phone heavily, replace the dialer, or a lot of other heavy customizations. That’s not what they focus on.

It’s just their ethos.

Re: Android loses 8% of its global OS market share in five years

#297

Post by tomComb »

Kye wrote: post #265
tomComb wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, that's just for the security updates that must be applied as full firmware updates, usually because they are in the kernel. Google has been progressively redesigning Android over the past decade to the point where they can do all non-kernel security updates immediately and silently via the play store. It's a much better way to do it IMO.

So to be clear: I have no clue about any of this. I like not having to think about what's going on under the hood. I've never had to since getting an iPhone. It sounds like what you're saying is Google has only continued to shuffle ever more vital functionality into the Play store since I left Android, which negates the often claimed benefits of an "open source" operating system. If all the important stuff is in a pr…

But you don't have to worry about or understand the Android security updates - they are applied without you even having to do a firmware update. As you indicate, security updates are not something you should have to worry about.

And just because they are applied by the play store doesn't mean they are closed source. The play store itself is closed source, but the security updates to the OS get published via the normal processes.

Android is open enough to allow competition, eg. Amazon's Android, Microsoft's Android runtime, etc. are all done without Google's permission.

To me, that's key, but I'm not trying to tell you whether open source should matter to you. I just wanted to clear up the stuff about the security updates because I think the Android way of doing it is now better than Apple's method.

Re: Android loses 8% of its global OS market share in five years

#298

Post by el-salvador »

adamomada wrote: post #201
el-salvador wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it unusual in the U.S. to carry two phones? I've had a work provided phone and a personal phone for a long time and so most of the people I know. Sometimes I've had a work iPhone and a personal Android, and now a work Android and a personal older iPhone.

It is the complete opposite from my view, whereas "most of the people" would think carrying two phones to be quite ridiculous.

Some people do here, but perhaps I'm not brave enough

I'd be worried about mixing up business and personal chats and photo galleries. Like if I need to take a picture with my work phone it's usually of something work related.

Or forwarding the wrong meme on a business chat, or attaching the wrong file in a family/friend message could land me in trouble.

Re: Android loses 8% of its global OS market share in five years

#299

Post by tsupiroti »

VWWHFSfQ wrote: post #16
lumb63 wrote: post #7

I’m not surprised. I used Android devoutly, had a Galaxy S4, then an S8 when that started showing its age. I upgraded to an iPhone 12 when AT&T ran the promotion to get a free one. I wanted to keep liking Android. The amount of time I spent arguing vehemently that Android was superior made the switch hard, but several factors came into play for me: - Extremely slow and fragmented upgrade of OS. This resulted in subst…

From my experience if you stay on the Google flagship/Pixel line then everything is great. Pretty much every other vender is garbage and will screw you and you'll have the experience you're talking about.

I've found Nokia/HMD also okay.

Re: Android loses 8% of its global OS market share in five years

#300

Post by MBCook »

jccalhoun wrote: post #294

i have an android phone and an ipad. IpadOS frustrates me nearly daily. Maybe I am thinking too android or windows-like but I just don't understand some of the choices regarding settings and file management.

The iPad is different from the iPhone. I don’t blame you. Even a ton of big Apple fans are not happy. The recent iPads are very powerful but the OS is still substantially similar to what the iPad 2 shipped with (which was designed for a phone). The power is locked behind the OS. It’s a pain.

An absolute roar of approval would go up if they announced fixes to iPadOS at WWDC this year. Or any year.

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